Bidding Farewell to Jeremy and Ross

Oakland was full of temporary moves this year, and three of them have already been abandoned though Oakland has only been gone from b-ball for less than two weeks. Earlier, Akinori Iwamaru was let go; Jeremy Hermida and Ross Wolf just joined him.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sorry and I don't really care. These guys were such temporary solutions, nothing short of a miracle would have kept them in Oaktown until 2011. Hermida, an outfielder, was signed from Boston and had 1 HR and 2 RBI in 21 games, while batting .250. Wolf came over from Baltimore on June 22, and posted a 4.26 ERA in 11 appearances. Let me be frank about this: basically, they did zilch.

Let's go in depth a bit more, starting with Hermida. The 26 year-old outfielder began his career in Florida and came to the AL in 2010, starting with the BoSox. He was nothing short of useless and very expendable (a .203 AVG and 45 K's in 158 AB's will do that), and on September 3 was signed to a minor league contract. Oakland called him up a bit later. He had 4 2B's, 5 RS, a .250 BA, 1 HR and 2 RBI in 64 at-bats, drawing an amazing 4 walks 8BTW, I'm being sarcastic).  He never had a future in Oakland, and I'm clueless to why Billy Beane signed him. We had a packed outfield, and a few minor leaguers waiting for the call. Why they may not have been much better, Matt Carson, Travis Buck, Coco and Rajai were all there, and maybe, just maybe Michael Taylor could have gotten a shot. 

To Mr. Wolf, who was relatively unimportant in his short stint. In 12.2 innings, he went 0-0 with 9 K's, 11 hits allowed, and a 4.26 ERA. Wolf hadn't played pro baseball since 2007, when he was with Florida. Not much else to say; he was a truly forgettable player.

Since I mentioned him, I'll quickly go over Aki. In a nutshell, Akinori Iwamaru was such a hopeless case it's amazing. In 10 games (31 AB's), he hit .129 with 10 strikeouts. Of course, he had to bring his famous signature move to Oakland; the 360° spin he does after every swing-and-a-miss, which makes him look like a bad ballet dancer with a baseball bat. Maybe it would have been better if he'd come in '07, '08, or even '09. Billy was just a year short. Or two. Or three.

Well, that's that. Oakland is trying to get rid of the riff-raff, and so far, three pieces are gone. Now, just a few more to go. (I'm talking about Travis Buck and either Matt Watson or Matt Carson).

We're on our way to a 2011 championship! Well, sort of.